Investing Favorites

Stocks:

AAPL, AMZN, APA, DAR, HFC, NFLX

Industries:

Industrials, Materials, Energy

Books:

ONE UP ON WALL STREET and BEATING THE STREET (Peter Lynch), all of the Motley Fool books by the Gardners (especially the original MOTLEY FOOL INVESTMENT GUIDE), THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR (Benjamin Graham).

An Interview with TMFTruth2Power

Rescuing my sister from drowning when I was about 11 or 12. And yet, she still gives me grief!

The Fool:

Given a second chance, what financial decision would you like to do over?

TMFTruth2Power:

This one's tough: In my early days of investing, I had several buys that I didn't research/think through thoroughly enough, and several sells that I should have hung onto (including BWLD and LQDT). The one, though, that immediately jumps to mind is buying SSCCQ while it was in bankruptcy. Classic rookie mistake.

The Fool:

Tell us about your first date. Who was it with and where did you go? (Remember, this is a family show!) ;)

TMFTruth2Power:

My first date was with a gal named Daisy, and we went to some sort of fair or other at her high school.

Getting Better Every Day

There's a lot of competing information out there about investing, and when I decided in late 2008 that I wanted to take charge of my own finances, I read most of it. And most of it's really bad. I mean, REALLY bad. I dabbled in chart patterns, market timing, read books about real estate speculation (which, thankfully, had pretty much fallen from favor by late 2008) and shorting...but finally my adventures convinced me that buy-and-hold is the best way to consistently beat the market. I also learned to look before I leapt.